


mermaids are christmas appropriate

by someoneplsloverobbierotten



Series: LazyTown Christmas fics 2017 [4]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gift Fic, M/M, Presents, Trans Sportacus (LazyTown)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 07:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13141851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/someoneplsloverobbierotten/pseuds/someoneplsloverobbierotten
Summary: Sportacus and Robbie open their Christmas presents.





	mermaids are christmas appropriate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scrungass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrungass/gifts).



> a gift for @irl-scrungass/lazy--stars bc holy heck dude ur art inspires me so much. seriously. i always wanna write when i see your stuff omg its so good and cute!
> 
> happy holidays! (and get better soon dude)

Sportacus got to open the first present, purely for the fact that if he had to wait any longer, Robbie suspected he might genuinely implode.

There was a great big pile of them sat under the tree, Sportacus's wrapped in dark blue wrapping paper covered in shiny gold stars, and Robbie's wrapped in a nice mix of metallic purple and gold, each with varying degrees of success. Gift wrapping was… not the Elf's strong point, but Robbie appreciated the effort and Sportacus hadn't done too badly. The ribbons were lovely and the presents were all pretty much covered, which was what really counted.

Still, it was… odd to so see so many presents under the tree in his lair - heck, it was completely bonkers to see a _tree_ in there. Robbie had never been the most festive of people. Ever. Christmas had a lot of perks but it was also loud and frantic and a time to be spent with _people,_ and Robbie had never had people before.

This time though, he had Sportacus. It'd been… what, a year since they became a couple? And a half? _Technically,_ this wasn't their first Christmas together, it was their second, but that first Christmas everything had been so _new;_ both of them had still been unsure, tentative of where everything was going and how to act. Robbie in particular had had reservations, mostly feeling unsure that things with Sportacus would last - or at least stay as good - and spent a good deal of time waiting for the other (non-existent) shoe to drop. Both nervous, they'd kept it simple by mutual non-discussion and bought each other a simple, small gift. It was sweet, but not really a holiday they spent together.

Not this year. _This_ year was going to be different. _This_ year was going to be done _properly._

Robbie had decorated, for one thing. For the first time ever there was actually a tree; a genuine, live Christmas tree in his lair. As much as he'd wanted to have an orange and purple theme - maybe next year - he'd gone with the traditional green red and gold. It looked stunning. A bit mismatched in terms of ornaments, perhaps - having never had a tree to decorate before he'd had to go shopping for decorations for it and had ended up pretty much just buying whatever he thought was pretty; thus, the mix of decorations on the tree was a little eclectic, but Robbie liked it. It looked nice, festive, _warm._

There was red tinsel wrapped around the banister of the Disguise Machine balcony, snowflakes stuck to his cabinets and yellow fairy lights giving out a soft, warm glow wrapped around the branches of the tree and around the kitchen area. There was even a wreath over the chute entrance. (And mistletoe - but that had been Sportacus's idea. Robbie had simply woken up one morning and it was just _there.)_

He'd made an actual effort to get presents for Sportacus too. Mostly online shopping, yes, but only because the shops around LazyTown itself were still limited. Just because he hadn't physically left the lair to get most of the things didn’t mean hadn't put genuine thought into them.

The presents for the brats were sat in bags under the chute at the side of the lair, ready to be taken up later. Since Robbie was a baker, not a chef, and Sportacus couldn’t cook anything more complex than toast - which only had about a 30% chance of success anyway - they'd decided not to do a Christmas dinner of their own and accept the invitation to the town dinner instead. They'd decided beforehand that they would save the children's presents until then, as it gave the kids time to spend time with their families and gave the two of them a chance to have a peaceful, cozy Christmas morning together in the comfort of Robbie's lair.

And for the most part, it _had_ been a cozy Christmas morning, even if Sportacus had had to physically _drag_ Robbie out of the bed to come and open presents with him - though he'd been forced to wait an extra five minutes anyway, because Robbie may have been content to skip breakfast ("there's no _time,_ Robbie! We can eat later - there's _presents!")_ but he drew the line at doing anything before his morning coffee.

Sportacus had pouted but had agreed to wait and gone to sulk in Robbie's armchair while Robbie made coffee - and tea for Sportacus, because he was a _nice_ boyfriend - and it was Christmas. When they both had a mug in their hand, they'd sat down in front of the tree and dug right in, Sportacus immediately selecting the biggest of his first.

It was a fruit hamper, filled with pretty much every kind of fruit Robbie had ever had the misfortune to hear of, in place of the customary Christmas chocolates. It had physically _pained_ Robbie to buy. There was also a bag of carrots in it, because it was Sportacus, and a _lot_ of apples.

"You got me _sportscandy?"_ Sportacus exclaimed, delighted, just as Robbie opened his first present and spluttered, "you got me _candy?!"_

Sportacus had gotten Robbie a big cardboard box and filled it with all of Robbie's different kinds of sweets; chocolates, candy bars, soft and hard sweets, strawberry laces, liquorice… the list went on and on (and on and on). A lot of the stuff were sweets that he'd have to go out of town or online for, and therefore didn’t get chance to have very often.

"I thought it best to get something you like," Sportacus said with a wry smile, "just please Robbie, _pace yourself._ Do _not_ eat them all in a week - or even a month."

"I promise nothing," Robbie told him, but he didn’t really mean it. Even he couldn’t eat that much that fast, he'd be sick. And besides - they were his favourites, and they were off Sportacus. He'd savour them.

There was a card stuck to the front of Sportacus's hamper and the hero opened it, pulling out a year's subscription to some weird vegan-only low-sugar snack service that sent you a box of different gross healthy snacks every week. He gasped and Robbie almost dropped the present he'd picked up.

"I've _heard_ of these!" He exclaimed, reading the back of the card. "I've been meaning to get one for so long - I can't wait to try them!"

"You are _not_ feeding them to me," Robbie warned him, removing the wrapping from his next gift.

"That's right," Sportacus agreed, "they're all for _me!"_

Robbie scoffed, smiling, and pulled off the rest of the wrapping to reveal a beautiful purple and maroon striped set of scarf and mittens. "Did- did you knit these," Robbie asked, mouth agape as he ran his fingers over the soft wool. They'd even been monogramed, large golden 'RR's stitched into each mitten and the end of the scarf. 

"I did," Sportacus told him, nodding. "Do they fit?"

Robbie wrapped the scarf around his neck and slid the mittens on. "They fit perfectly," Robbie said, "thank you - they're lovely." They were so _warm_ too.

Sportacus smiled at him, and reached for his next gift. Robbie did the same, but he had to take his gloves off first, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to open anything.

Suddenly Sportacus was laughing.

Robbie looked up, confused. "What's so funny?" he asked the giggling Elf, "what did I-"

Still laughing, Sportacus lifted up the bag of teas he'd just unwrapped, and pointed to another of Robbie's presents under the tree. "O- open that o- one," he wheezed, and Robbie grabbed for it, tearing of the packaging.

Robbie immediately got the giggles when he saw what was inside. "Oh wow," he said, holding up his bag of teas. "Great minds thing alike, I guess."

Sportacus snorted, almost choking, and covered his mouth. Robbie let him calm down while he inspected his teas. He'd gotten Sportacus a selection of little tester tins, all fruit or flower based, as well as a box of flowering jasmine heads, and it looked like Sportacus has had pretty much the exact same idea for Robbie.

His had several little bags of different teas all wrapped in a plastic baggie, and they looked to be all sweet themed; _Birthday Cake, Raspberry Pavlova, Chocolate Chai, Millionaire Shortbread,_ and _Cotton Candy_ and were just some of the absolutely _beautiful_ sounding titles, and Robbie felt his mouth water. Instead of a bigger bag of tea though, Robbie had gotten a big bag of coffee - the fancy stuff which, again, Robbie got rarely because it was from places that were too far away.

There was another little present with the teas and Robbie opened it to discover a little metal hanging tea strainer.

It was shaped like a heart, because Sportacus was a sap.

Robbie immediately downed the rest of his coffee and abandoned the rest of his presents, scrambling towards the kitchen to make a cup of cotton candy tea with his new strainer. Sportacus chuckled at the sight and sat back to wait until Robbie was finished.

"You can carry on," Robbie told him, scooping tea into the strainer.

Sportacus just shrugged. "I'm okay," he said.

When Robbie sat back down, sipping his _heavenly_ new tea, Sportacus pulled one of the bigger presents out and removed the wrapping methodically. Considering how excited the Elf was at all of this, Robbie had been surprised to find that Sportacus opened his presents pretty carefully, instead of just tearing off the paper like he'd thought he would. He opened everything with speed, but the paper pretty much came off in a single still-intact sheet.

While he waited for Sportacus to finish with that, Robbie picked up his next present. It was small, about the size of a ping pong ball, and if Sportacus had gotten Robbie a _sports equipment_ he would-

Oh.

It was a small, shiny purple bouncy ball. Robbie didn’t like sports, and didn’t own anything Sporty unless he'd used it to trap Sportacus in the past, but he _did_ have a little secret method for calming down when he was stressed - which was to bounce stuff off the walls; usually a ball of some sort that he'd stolen from the brats. The repetitive motion and sound helped soothe him. Sportacus had only ever seen him do it a couple of times since they'd been together, and he'd never commented on it. Robbie hadn't even known he'd noticed.

Of course he'd noticed.

Robbie bounced the ball off the floor a couple of times, testing it, and Sportacus looked over at him.

"Is it any good?"

"It's perfect," Robbie said quietly, and put the ball in his pocket.

"Good," Sportacus beamed, and took the last bit of wrapping off of his new tennis rackets. His old ones were really starting to wear down, some of the strings snapped or frayed and the handle grips rubbing down. The new ones were blue and silver and, Robbie was pretty sure, of a reasonably professional brand.

"These are fantastic Robbie!" Sportacus shouted, swinging one of them experimentally. The tree swayed from the breeze it made and Robbie jumped.

_"Do not hit the tree,"_ he hissed, and Sportacus chuckled but put the bat down, and Robbie reached for his last gift.

It was shoebox sized - which, it turned out was because it had shoes in it. But not just any shoes.

"These- these are the ones I saw last month!" Robbie gasped, flinging the tissue paper protecting them off to the side and lifting them out. They were purple and shiny, with a very small heel to them, and had white brogue-style spats.

"I know," Sportacus said, "I went back the next day and bought them."

"You little _sneak,"_ Robbie accused, unable to keep the grin spreading across his face as he tried them on, "you said you slept in!"

"I still can't believe you actually _fell_ for that, Robbie."

"Shut up," Robbie said, admiring how incredible the shoes looked on him - though they didn’t really go with his pyjamas. Oh well, he could make it work. They fit wonderfully. "They're excellent!" He gushed, "I have so many suits that will go with these - and a couple of the most _amazing_ dresses."

"I'm glad they fit," Sportacus said, removing the tape from his next gift. The paper slid off to reveal a little round metal tin. "Is this slime?" Sportacus asked, inspecting the tin's brightly coloured lid. The kids were crazy about the stuff, and he and Robbie had had more than enough opportunities to mess around with it with them. He'd quite enjoyed it, too.

"Kind of," Robbie said. "It's putty," he explained, "it's less wet, and I think a little firmer, but still stretchy. People use it for stress."

"Huh." Sportacus nodded, opening the tin and looking inside. The putty was in a plastic baggie inside the tin, a metallic sapphire blue, and Sportacus was immediately drawn to it, reaching in to take the baggie out and open it.

"You can play with it later," Robbie told him, rolling his eyes. "You still have more to go," he pointed at another one of Sportacus's presents under the tree.

Sportacus snorted and put the lid back on, setting the tin to the side before reaching for the gift Robbie was pointing at. It was medium sized and quite flat, and wrapped in the same star-covered paper that the other gifts from Robbie had been. Filled with curiosity, Sportacus slid a thumb under the tape sticking down the far left corner and gently prized it up, uncovering a plain white box.

Sportacus had no idea what would come in a box like this and was clearly intrigued as he lifted the lid. There was a bunch of tissue paper inside, covering whatever the present was in layers of white, and Sportacus peeled them back while Robbie watched, chewing the nail of his thumb nervously.

When the tissue had been removed Sportacus slid his hand inside and lifted out the contents.

"Is- is it alright?" Robbie asked around his thumb, caught between leaning forward to see Sportacus's reaction and leaning further back in case he didn’t like it.

"It- oh _Robbie,"_ Sportacus breathed, staring at the binder in his hands with awe. It was blue, the same shade as the undershirt of his hero uniform, The stitching the same dark blue as the rest of his uniform with the black and white racing stripes up the right side. "Robbie it's _wonderful."_

Robbie's sigh of relief went unnoticed by Sportacus, too engrossed in turning the binder this way and that in excitement. "I love it! It matches my uniform!"

"I know," Robbie told him, "I thought that… if it matched, and people saw it, they'd think it was one of those tank top things people wear at the gym, then when it's hot you won't have to wear a shirt if you don't want to - you know, then if- if people who don’t _know_ see it, they won't-"

"Robbie," Sportacus cut him off, laying a hand over the inventors. "It's _perfect._ Thank you, I- I think maybe… if it's hot… yes. Gosh, that’s so _thoughtful_ of you..." he trailed off, running his thumb over the binders stitching. It was the same bright blue as the majority of his uniform. "You're so smart."

Robbie flushed, and Sportacus took his hand back so he could hold the binder up to his chest. It looked like it would fit very well. Almost perfectly, in fact.

"Robbie, how- how did you know my size?" Sportacus asked, looking up at Robbie confusedly. "I always find it hard to get binders in my size, I have to get them-"

"Custom made," Robbie finished, "I know - I, ah, did some… snooping."

"Snooping?" Sportacus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Snooping," Robbie admitted. "I knew you got yours custom made so I figured that I'd have to do the same if I wanted to get one I knew would fit - which I kind of needed with it being for Christmas and all, I didn’t want you to have to open it and then send it _back_ to get one that _did_ fit - and I wanted to get you one I knew would last and be good quality, so I thought 'hey, just order one from the place he used, then you know it's good', so I… snuck a peak at the label on the inside of your white one when I was doing laundry last month."

Something clicked in Sportacus's mind. "I _wondered_ why you were so willing to do the laundry that day."

Robbie winced, "yeah… and… you know, if you were also uh, _wondering_ where your black one went the next week… I stole it."

"You- you _stole_ it?" Sportacus sputtered, halfway between shock and laughter, _"why?"_

"So I could measure it," the villain explained sheepishly, "I uh, didn’t know your measurements or any of the specifics that they asked for - and it would've been fishy if I'd have just asked to randomly measure you for no apparent reason - so I asked the company if I could just send in the measurements for a binder you already had and they said yes."

Sportacus just shook his head incredulously, "so many things are making sense now…"

"I bet," Robbie muttered. He leaned over to reach around the very back of the tree and pulled out another present, exactly the same shape and size that the binder had been, and handed it to the hero, who took it curiously. "Last present."

"Did you get me another one?" Sportacus asked, turning the box in his hands.

"Maybe," Robbie said, "maybe not - you'll have to open it and see, won't you?"

The Elf chuckled and carefully unstuck the tape that was holding the paper in place just like last time - and just like last time, Robbie marvelled at the fact he didn’t rip it - and opened the box inside. As soon as he saw what was inside the box Sportacus snorted so hard he almost choked and started giggling, the open box shaking slightly in his hands.

Robbie took no offence at the reception of his gift, he knew exactly what Sportacus was looking at and he'd had a good laugh over it himself when he'd found it - in fact, the amusement factor was primarily the reason he'd bought it.

"Do you like it?" Robbie asked as Sportacus pulled the second binder out of the box, "I thought that one was more your style, you know, with all those _flashy_ moves you like to do."

Sportacus snorted again, grinning at the shiny blue mermaid pattern binder in his hands, the metallic scales shimmering in the light from the Christmas tree. "I love it," the Elf snickered, "very my style. So fashionable."

"Yes," Robbie agreed, trying to keep a straight face, "I thought so."

"You know," Sportacus said, doing a much worse job of keeping his expression straight, "they make leggings out of this material - I've seen it."

"And boxers," Robbie added.

"…My birthday's in the Spring."

"You can have the boxers," Robbie told him dryly.

Sportacus grinned, "good, because I'm getting you the leggings for yours."

Robbie threw a ball of wrapping paper at him and Sportacus dodged it effortlessly, the paper hitting the floor behind him and spinning off to goodness knows where. Robbie would probably find it in February.

Sportacus scooted closer to Robbie, mermaid binder still clutched gently in his hands, and kissed him. Robbie hummed a little in surprise and kissed him back.

When he pulled back, the Elf kissed his cheek. "Thank you Robbie, I love them." he kissed him again, smiling. "I love you."

"I love you too," Robbie replied, the warm atmosphere relaxing him enough to be able to say it without stumbling over the words, or saying it so quietly that Sportacus didn’t hear it right.

Sportacus smiled and Robbie couldn’t help but smile back, automatically lifting an arm to let the Elf snuggle into his side when Sportacus shifted closer again.

"This has been a good Christmas," Robbie said, pressing a kiss to Sportacus's forehead.

"I know," Sportacus replied. He ran his thumb over the binder again. "I can't wait for next year."

Robbie chuckled, resting his cheek on his boyfriend's head. "Me neither."

**Author's Note:**

> will there ever be a fic of these two where i dont make them drink tea?? probs not.


End file.
